Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers

Most of MySpace users are Chris’s Parents Age, Damn I’m old.

Chris (who’s in his early 20s), reports that the mass majority of MySpace users are his parents generation. Ouch, that hurts, since I’m likely closer to his parents age than his age.

Have you noticed how many movies, musicians, and other companies are now promoting on MySpace? The result of that will be that the ‘cool kids’ have already moved onto something newer and cooler.

“Some 87 percent of users today are 18 or older; 52 percent are 35 or older”

52% of MySpace users are 35 and older…wow, that’s my parents’ generation! And, we thought they were not tech savy…time is changing!”

Last year, many wondered if MySpace is a fad, I think we can agree it’s a trend, and defines a generation.

Since MySpace is reaching mass appeal, where will all the ‘cool kids’ go?
I’ve heard that Bebo is emerging, leave a comment if you have some ideas.

9 Comments so far

  1. jeremiah_owyang September 5th, 2006 3:07 am

    Let me be the first to take a jab at this post, yes obviously I’m not cool if I have to ask.

    I hear facebook is still getting more and more users.

  2. Greg September 5th, 2006 5:35 am

    In my experience, Facebook has great penetration at colleges and by recent alums but not really anywhere else. To join you need a .edu email address which helps to a large degree in keeping out the riff raff. It also prevents it from becoming the phenomenon that MySpace has, as their market is quite restricted.

  3. jeremiah_owyang September 5th, 2006 5:53 am

    Facebook has extended the invitation to others besides ‘.edu’ accounts. Several of my colleagues are using it.

    In related news, Facebook just had a redesign reports TechCrunch, I’ve not seen it yet, but will check it out later.

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/05/new-facebook-redesign-more-than-just-aesthetics/

  4. Ann Handley September 5th, 2006 7:05 am

    Jeremiah — Obviously all of those MySpace kids now have jobs and are connecting through our blogs instead. (lol…)

    Came across this handy chart the other day:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

  5. jeremiah_owyang September 5th, 2006 7:45 am

    Thanks Ann, nice find.

    I’ve had my eye on CyWorld for a while. They just broke into the US market.

  6. Christopher Salazar September 5th, 2006 8:14 pm

    Hey Jeremiah,

    MySpace is definitely an interest of mine, yet Facebook just introduced a cool feed feature, which is making it very web 2.0. It allows users the ability to get a preview of their friends’ activity. I took some snapshots and posted them here: http://ebizz.wordpress.com/2006/09/06/facebook-is-using-feeds-now/

    I can’t wait until Facebook opens up their arms to all of corporate america since I will soon be entering into the workforce (by the way, I prefer facebook over linkedin). Why? It will be my next post. =)

    -Chris

  7. […] Although MySpace is the most visited website in the US, Facebook is still adding more features to attract users. Jeremiah talks about how MySpace is a trend, not a fad, and how many doubted the success of MySpace in the beginning. Yet, Greg adds (in Jeremiah’s post) that Facebook “has great penetration at colleges and by recent alums but not really anywhere else.” […]

  8. jeremiah_owyang September 5th, 2006 9:11 pm

    Thanks Chris, good thoughts about Facebook.

  9. Kylie September 10th, 2007 3:57 pm

    I have a Facebook, Bebo, and a Myspace. And by far my favorite is Facebook. Its a cleaner, more friendly site. Its quite private, which is something that I really enjoy about it. You can’t have a really personalized facebook with the layout and such like you can with myspace, or a song, and those are two features that I really enjoy about myspace. But Facebook seems like a more wholesome site compared to the rest. Oh, and Bebo is pretty much incredibly lame, so I don’t even use it.

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